Both Bingo and I Were Under Par on Wednesday

When I arrived at the barn on Wednesday I was already tired. On Monday we had driven a long distance to see my son and grandson up in Asheboro, NC for dinner. Then on Tuesday I had to go a long distance to see the periodontist, go by the tack store, then to Charlotte for several hours. I told Debbie I would not be able to do much. Well, guess what, when Debbie brought Bingo in we discovered that the inside of his left hock was a little swollen, so my physical abilities and his physical abilities matched up quite well! He was not overtly lame at all, just a little stiffer than normal. As we groomed him he started relaxing because it felt SO GOOD, and as we put on the various BOT and Fenwick gear he got dreamy eyed and he contentedly relaxed as we tacked him up.

When I started walking him around I did not feel any lameness, there were no twitches as he strode out, though I did have to use my legs a good bit to keep him striding out, but that is normal. When I did a turn on the hindquarters I finally felt a flinch, I told Debbie and she kept a sharper eye on his hind leg with the swollen hock. He did not overtly show lameness by nodding his head, and she finally had me trot him away from her so she could check the level of his hips as he trotted. It was still inconclusive about how much his hock was bothering him, so I continued mostly at the walk with gentle turns. As I rode him the swelling in his hock went down and he felt more comfortable under me.

As I walked Bingo around Debbie and I talked about how to make him comfortable enough to use in Debbie's riding camp in two weeks. She decided to start feeding him an ant-inflammatory supplement (Sore No More?) and to rub some DMSO on the swelling. He will be in the walk-trot group, so he won't be worked terribly hard. Sometimes, if the horse's people can catch a lameness right at the beginning and treat it with the common remedies. the lameness will resolve. Since Debbie has decades of experience dealing with the common lamenesses I am content to follow her lead when the lameness is barely detectable by two experienced horse people. Hey, my common answer to minor swellings on my horse's legs was 20 minutes of cold hosing a day (a treatment that many vets approved of when I asked them,) but then I did not have decades of dealing with lots of horses like Debbie has. Experience does count around horses!

Then Debbie and I got into a discussion about bitting, since her horse, Tercel, had bolted with her on a trail ride. She rides him now in a Myler D-ring with plenty of tongue room (sorry, I don't know the specific mouthpiece number) and she was mildly distressed that he had “run through the bit.” It isn't that Debbie can't deal with a rambunctious horse, it is that Tercel needs to learn to save energy at the start of a long trail ride. I suggested that I lend her my PeeWee bit since I no longer need it for Bingo as he seems to prefer my new Wellep bit. I had started Bingo on the PeeWee bit so I had some authority backing up my turning rein aid to counteract his THICK throat latch, but after several months of him learning my hand, leg and seat aid language, I have no problems turning Bingo in the gentler Wellep bit. I pointed out that since the PeeWee bit keeps the bit rings OFF the sides of the horse's head that would remove one source of irritation that Tercel may be reacting to by ignoring Debbie's aids, and how the comfortably arched Mullen mouth that the horse can put in the most comfortable place on the horse's tongue would probably work well. She decided that it might be a good idea to try the PeeWee bit on Tercel. Of course there are no guarantees that the PeeWee bit will work, Mia for one despised that bit!

Many people react to a horse's disobedience to the rein by looking for a stronger bit, one that can hurt the horse more, especially if their rider does not have good hands. This sets off an “arms race,” the horse learns how to ignore one bit, the harsher bit gets introduced, the horse gets even more resistant to the rein aids, and harsher bits and abusively tight nosebands often ensue. I'm different, for one thing I do not use a noseband on my bridles. I search out the GENTLEST bit that could work on the horse, and with the new bit I make sure to school the horse so the horse realizes that I am still in control and I still expect the horse to obey my rein aids. As the horse consents to be controlled by the new bit I look for the next gentlest bit I can use, and I end up using my Wellep bits which the horses seem to prefer over a solid Mullen mouth snaffle. In bad cases, since I realize that my hands are far from perfect, I switch to one of my bitless systems until the horse learns what I mean with my hand, leg and seat aids. My goal with a bit is for the horse to cheerfully reach out for contact, and for the horse to “talk” to me with his tongue and jaw movements. I know that many riders take pride in never using rein aids, preferring to use just seat and leg aids for control, but these take so much more physical energy than just twitching my little finger at the correct phase of the horse's stride, that I have little desire to waste my very limited physical energy on the seat aids unless nothing else will work. Of course I use my legs all the time, in fact on good days I can get a turn on the hindquarters at the walk holding the reins on the buckle by just alternating my outside thigh and lower leg at the right time.

Forty or so years ago, when Debbie and I started riding seriously, horsemen who could control the horse by just using seat and leg aids were admired, no doubt about it, but the highest accolades went to the riders who could control their horses with LIGHT rein aids. Lightly champing mouths, relaxed polls and lower jaws, and cheerful obedience to light rein aids were considered the acme of a rider's skill, both on and off contact. So yes, we are old fashioned, but we both can ride “difficult” horses with mild bits, loose nosebands, and no martingales or auxiliary reins. Good educated hands are important! Of course since Debbie has so much more experience than I do (she has trained and ridden many, many more horses than I have) the horses usually obey her no matter what her hands are doing. But with me, with my MS handicaps, my lack of a sense of balance, my difficulty in coordinating all the different parts of my body, and my inability to “feel” when I am in proper position, the fact that I have good, educated hands is a major safety factor in my riding.

Bingo ended our ride moving smoothly at the walk, willingly taking contact with the bit and not using it to support himself. He walked sound back to the barn, though he still showed some stiffness. Debbie rubbed some DMSO on the swelling on his hock and fed him the supplement with his after ride treat. When I left Bingo was happy and content with his world.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran